The upcoming Horses-in-Training Sales series, to be held at Leopardstown, Ascot, Doncaster and Kildare, was announced by Goffs on Thursday.
The boutique Goffs Champions Sale returns to Leopardstown as the opening event of the Irish Champions Festival on Saturday, Sept. 14. First held in 2014, the 10-year average is €188,000, with a median of €150,000 and a clearance rate of 69% for catalogues ranging between four and 12 lots. Horses have sold for €500,000, €470,000, €450,000 and €300,000 at previous renewals.
The second boutique sale will be the Goffs QIPCO British Champions Day Sale at Ascot, which began in 2023. Rogue Lightning (Ire) (Kodiac {GB}) sold for £1 million to Richard Brown of Blandford Bloodstock on behalf of Wathnan Racing during the first edition. QIPCO British Champions Day is Britain's richest race day with total prize-money above £4 million and four Group 1 races on tap. This year's edition is slated for the winners' enclosure before racing on Saturday, Oct. 19.
The Doncaster October Horses-In-Training Sale will be held in the Doncaster ring that saw a vibrant HIT market at the Spring Sale followed by a new record for the highest priced National Hunt horse ever sold at public auction, £660,000, at the Doncaster Summer Sale. The two-day sale will be held from Oct. 22-23, with recent prices at this sale include £150,000, £100,000, £90,000, £80,000 etc.
Rounding out the four Goffs HIT sales is the Autumn Horses-In-Training Sale, which is held in conjunction with the Autumn Yearling Sale from Nov. 4-7 and features a particularly diverse domestic and international buying bench. Recent prices of €200,000, €160,000, €125,000, €120,000, €105,000, €100,000, etc. have been achieved for horses under both codes. Graduates have gone on to win at Cheltenham, as well as the G1 Melbourne Cup.
Goffs Group chief executive Henry Beeby said, “Boutique auctions for elite horses in training are a Goffs specialty. As consistently proven in recent years, our boutique sales have achieved the highest prices of any horses-in-training sales in the UK and Ireland. Goffs London Sale on the eve of Royal Ascot recorded top prices of £5 million, £1.1 million and £1.2 million at its three most recent renewals, and the key ingredients of right time right place also apply to both Leopardstown and Ascot, as the calibre of racing and prize-money draws all the major players and provides the perfect platform for vendors of world-class horses.
“Our onsite horses in training sales in Kildare and Doncaster continue to provide a vibrant international marketplace for Irish and UK trainers and prove time and again that when we have the quality, the buyers flock to Goffs.”
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